Ranch Daddy

We reached the pasture, and my pulse sped up. I wanted to prove I could open the gate and close it behind me the way he taught me, but I’d only ever practiced on Ginger. Would Rollo cooperate?

I moved toward the gate, positioning him parallel to it as I used my foot on the latch to open it. Then I maneuvered Rollo to block the opening with his body as we slipped inside, and I pushed the gate closed.

I glanced at Blake, nervous I’d done something wrong, but he was beaming at me. “That was perfect, even on a new horse.”

“I did it just like you taught me.”

“Yes, you did. If you learn how to do everything else I teach you just as well, you’ll have no problem proving you can run this place.”

I moved farther into the pasture so Blake could come through the gate, but before we could head out to find the cows he wanted to check, a message from Vic came through on his radio.

“Andy from the KC just called. There’s a loose bull along their fence line. He didn’t get close enough to verify that it’s ours, but it likely is.”

“Damn. I’ll take care of it. Can you come check the cows we’re monitoring?”

“You think the bull is ours?” I asked as Blake put his radio back on his belt.

“Almost certainly. Stay here and wait for Vic. You can watch him check the cows.”

Blake sounded distracted, and I didn’t like that. “Rounding up a loose bull sounds dangerous.”

“It is. That’s why you need to stay here.”

“Are you sure you should do this alone?”

Blake sighed. “It’s not ideal, but there’s too much going on today and—”

“I’m going with you.”

“No, Riley. You’re—”

“Tell me what I need to do. I swear I’ll listen to every word you say.”

“Riley, I—”

I had a bad feeling about this that I couldn’t shake. I wasn’t going to back down. “You told me I could do anything.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m going to deliberately put your life in danger.”

“I don’t want you in danger either.”

“A ranch is a dangerous place, but I chose this. You didn’t.”

Maybe not but I did choose Blake. “I’m choosing it now.”

“Only because your father—”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m going with you.” I held his gaze. Didn’t he understand how worried I was? “Please. I’m supposed to learn everything.”

“When your father told me to teach you how to run this ranch, he didn’t mean for me to put you in danger like this.”

“Maybe, but you’ve told me plenty of the stuff we do every day is dangerous, and it’s not like my father actually cares about me.”

“I think he—”

“Don’t try to tell me I’m wrong.” He might care about some way I could be useful to him, but he’s never been interested in me as a person.

“Come on,” Blake said. Did that mean he’d given up arguing with me? “We’ve got to swing by the barn to get a couple of poles from the storeroom. We may need them to ward him off.” He studied my horse for a moment, then nodded. “Rollo is a good mount for this. Midnight isn’t ideal. He’s easier to spook, but I don’t have time to tack up another horse. We need to take care of this quickly. Our bulls are way too valuable and dangerous to have on the loose.”

Blake grabbed two long fiberglass poles. He’d taught me how to use them to push cattle when it wasn’t safe to get close to them or if they were behaving aggressively. Once we had what we needed, we headed toward the border with the neighboring ranch. The bull was hanging out near one of their pasture fences.

“At least I don’t see any cows up this way,” Blake said. “He’d be a lot harder to move if there was a cow in heat nearby.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“I’m going to do my best to get him moving in the direction of the bullpen. Hopefully, he’ll want to get back to our herd. As long as that works, just follow along behind me.”

Blake approached the bull, and initially everything went fine. The bull started moving in the right direction, but a few moments later, he turned back, glared at Blake, and pawed the ground. Midnight spooked, and Blake fell from his back and hit the ground.

“Hey, bull, hey,” I yelled. I didn’t even think about danger. All that mattered was keeping the bull away from Blake. From the corner of my eye, I could tell that Blake was slowly standing up. At least he wasn’t seriously injured. I moved Rollo closer to the bull, keeping a grip on my pole, ready to use it if I needed to, but the bull turned and headed off in the right direction again. Blake followed like he’d told me to do. When we were almost at the bull pen, he called to me. “Move past him and open the gate like we’ve practiced. I’ll keep him moving through. Don’t hesitate to use your pole.”